Leadership Based Team Building Activities

Balloon Keep Up

The aim of this light hearted but powerful exercise is to promote problem solving lateral thinking and to think positively that a task can be achieved. Teams are given a number of balloons to keep in the air with only one touch allowed. Simple at first, as more balloons are added, the action becomes frantic. To solve the problem requires some creative thinking.

Color Square Shuffle

This is a fabulous visual puzzle designed to force team members to work together, help each other and think logically to achieve a goal. It involves moving large coloured foam tiles one by one to recreate a pattern. The problem is that teams must do this one person at a time, and without knowing the solution. This really forces teams to work together and help each other.

Don’t Touch Me

This is a great fun activity for distinguishing between continuous improvement and innovation/breakthrough improvement and for discussion on how our assumptions can limit our choices.

Each person on the team must touch a hoop placed in the middle of the circle, NOT touch anyone else, must switch places with their partner and repeat the safety mantra "Don't Touch Me." A record time will only be found bteams thinking outside the box.

Inventory

A very clever team puzzle based on the tower of Hanoi conundrum. By splitting the team into smaller groups, this activity forces participants to deal with multitasking and group dynamics. The job is to move a series of large foam blocks from one place to another inside the wok area. However, to conform to the rules, real strategy is needed to puzzle out the solution in this race against the clock

Leadership or Management ?

Leadership or Management is an exercise to get upper management talking - and thinking. This exercise enables people to understand the differences between leadership and management and aims to show that anyone can lead, inspire, and motivate others.

International English will provide a list of many things that managers and leaders do. Then the participants have to identify the items that are associated with managing, and those that are associated with leading. The participants can write the items on a note and separate them into two categories, one for leading and one for managing. International English will provide a list sorted into suggested categories for reviewing the activity. The answers are not absolute as context and style can affect category.

Paper Towers or Bridges

Using a variety of building materials, candidates have to construct either the highest towers or the longest bridges out of paper. This is a great exercise for team members to take on different roles within the group, and is particularly useful for creative or innovative thinking for teams involved in product design.

This activity is recommended for all, with emphasis on creative roles.

Sales Race

In this game, teams are given a limited amount of money, and a shopping list. Their task is to find the items on their list which takes them to many places, and then to bargain for the items. Because money and time is at a premium, it takes teamwork and negotiation skills to be successful. The game can be done with either supplied transport, or as an added challenge, using public transport which will further test team’s ability to plan, cooperate, communicate and bargain.

Snake

This is a blind fold activity with a difference. Only one member of the team wears the blind fold. The others stand still linked together by a rope. The blindfolded person must move a hoop along the rope listening for instructions from his colleagues. The hoop is not allowed to touch either the participants or the rope.